Measuring measurement--disturbance relationships with weak values

Using formal definitions for measurement precision {\epsilon} and disturbance (measurement backaction) {\eta}, Ozawa [Phys. Rev. A 67, 042105 (2003)] has shown that Heisenberg’s claimed relation between these quantities is false in general. Here we show that the quantities introduced by Ozawa can be determined experimentally, using no prior knowledge of the measurement under investigation — both quantities correspond to the root-mean-squared difference given by a weak-valued probability distribution. We propose a simple three-qubit experiment which would illustrate the failure of Heisenberg’s measurement–disturbance relation, and the validity of an alternative relation proposed by Ozawa.